The First Time…

The first time she saw Clark Kent, running with his friends through the streets of Smallville, her ten-year-old heart had stopped in her chest. Alana Brighton had stopped in her tracks, everything else forgotten - even her own friends who she was supposed to be playing jump rope with.

"What's the matter?" Jennifer Jodhpurs asked as the rope went lax around her.

Jessica Beans looked where her redheaded friend was staring so intently and rolled her eyes. "Alana's just staring at one of the boys over there," she said snidely, snapping the rope so that it hit her hand. "Come on, Alana, it's time to play! Mama wants me home in half an hour for dinner!"

The gawky girl barely noticed the rope hitting her hand, something that would have made her yelp in pain usually. "Who is that?" she muttered as she continued to stare at the boy. He hadn't noticed her staring yet, fully engrossed in kicking the can with his friends at the moment. This piqued Shelby Reynolds' interest as she'd never seen her friend act this way about anyone before. As the only member of their group who had yet to have a crush on anyone, Shelby had almost given up on her.

"Which one?" she asked curiously. She could see a bunch of different boys that may have caught Alana's attention.

"The one with the blue eyes and black hair," she sighed, all but swooning. She'd never seen anything like him.

"Oh, Clark?" Shelby said, crinkling her nose. "That's Clark Kent. You like Clark? I think Brian Jenson is cuter…" She trailed off when she realized that her friend was no longer listening to her. "Hello? Earth to Alana…"

… …

"That sounds so romantic," Gloria Stephens sighed into her beer bottle. The two were having a 'Girls' Night In' since Alana's son was sick.

"Why are we talking about this?" Alana slurred, being the lightweight that she was. Her 'two beer' limit, the one that she'd scrupulously obeyed since high school graduation, was a distant memory from the first hour of their time together. It was Spring Break after all. If Gloria had her way, the two of them would have been at a nightclub with the rest of their friends, celebrating their temporary freedom. But she was a mother first and foremost and Jackson had a fever and couldn't keep anything down for the last three days. Alana had been prepared to make her excuses and work on her term papers throughout the week while she nursed her poor son back to health.

Her best friend had other plans, apparently.

"We're talking about this because you never want to talk about this. Jackson is a great kid and you are a wonderful mother. But you are also a woman, dammit! Why do you have your libido on permanent lockdown? I mean, I know that you 'only want your first' and all, but he doesn't seem to be available at the moment. You're still young - you're the youngest in our residency - you need to get over him and have some new experiences. It's been thirteen years for Christ's sake. You don't exactly need to join a convent to be a good mom."

"I know, Gloria, believe me, I do. But there is this… gravity to us. This feeling of inevitability even though he had the same reaction I had… to someone else two years later. I watched him court Lois Lane all through middle and high school and I was determined to put him behind me. But every time I try, there he is again. That same smile, that same-"

"Girl, you haven't seen him in thirteen years! How do you know that anything is the same about him?"

"Nothing could ever be different about him," Alana said vaguely. She looked at her best friend strangely when she saw the look on her face.

"Man, you've got it bad. One night after graduating high school does not mean you are condemned to a life of loneliness pining for him."

"He's the best thing to ever happen to me. And he gave me Action Jackson in there."

"Alana, sweetheart, he's the only thing to ever happen to you. And if he's so great, why haven't you gotten in touch with him about child support? Action Jackson is getting older and he resents his father more and more with each passing day."

"I don't understand why though," she said forcefully. "I've always been very clear that he should hate me for him not knowing his father. I'm the coward who didn't want to ruin his life straight out of school. But still he-"

"Jackson is a smart kid," Gloria said sympathetically, wiping her friend's tears away. "He'll figure it out eventually."

"Don't want him to grow up hating Clark. He was everything to me." The crying woman laid her head on the kitchen table they were sitting at.

"You need a new 'everything' if you ask me," Gloria grumbled, stopping when she heard the soft snores of her best friend. Seeing that her straight-laced, tight-lipped best friend was done for the night, she draped a blanket over her shoulders, easing the alcohol bottle out of her hand so that the boy wouldn't get the impression that his mother was a lush. She looked up to see Jackson lurking in the doorway, a blanket draped over his shoulders. Looking at the boy objectively, she could admit that he was very handsome. He also looked almost nothing like his mother. Oh, there were features that resembled his mom, but Gloria could only assume that he looked exactly like his father. Green-eyed and black of hair, with a powerful build that just looked stocky as he inched closer and closer to puberty, Jackson had the makings of a major heartbreaker.

"Hey, Action Jackson, what's been going on with you lately? Broken any hearts yet?"

As usual, the questions made the polite, humble little boy blush. "Hey, Aunt Gloria. Is Mama okay?"

"Oh, your mama is just fine. Auntie Gloria was a little bad and got her drunk so we could talk about… adult things. That's all. She'll sleep it off and be good as new tomorrow. But I don't think she'd want you to see her like this. And besides, aren't you supposed to be in bed? Come on, little man. To bed with you." She led her godson to his room in the two-bedroom apartment, tucking him in before calling a cab for herself.

Jackson waited until his godmother was gone to sneak back into the kitchen. He'd never seen his mom like this before. She never talked about her past and especially not about his father, except to assure him of what a great guy he was. She was a mother through and through, always protecting him the best way she could. Well, his illness had given him some skills to protect her now. Smiling to himself, he picked her up one-handed and carried the exhausted woman to her bed. He tucked her in lovingly, determined to get a few things about her life straightened out.

Uh oh... I think you all know where I'm going with this! ::grins:: More of the specifics will be laid out as the story progresses. Stick around for more :D